Menu

Honeymoon Trip to Japan

Using a little bit of ingenuity and a few Credit Cards, my wife and I were able to take an amazing 12 day trip to Japan! The Flights were just $98 (9-11 Fees) since we used United, which is nicer regarding fees and taxes when redeeming with points.

The UR Portal was very helpful here, as the 30K from the Ink Bold helped us to meet the 65K per Ticket cost for each of our RT Tickets.

I ‘bought’ my flight there and back for 65,000, plus her flight from Japan back to Cleveland for 32,500 using United MileagePlus Points. She purchased her own ‘To Japan’ Ticket using her points from HER United card. Since one cannot transfer points from one United account to another without paying fees, I had to buy her ‘1 way’ ticket from Japan to Cleveland.

The Barclay Arrival card is great for ’rounding the corners’… For example, we stayed in a very nice AirBnB in Tokyo, which is categorized as a ‘hotel’ in their system. That means our $100anight lodging was ‘canceled out‘ by the $450 AirBnB credit. This particular AirBnB included Breakfast, an amazing Portable WiFi Unit (INVALUABLE Abroad!), a dinner or two, and some amazing advice / memories. My wife who also had the same Barclay card, used hers to cancel our our ‘JapanRail Pass’ and a couple of taxis who took credit cards. That’s $900 in expenses easily avoided thanks to Churning!

If we had more time to plan everything and I had more foresight, we could have gotten 2-5 nights of Hotel Stays for free as well.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Planning this Trip was one of the most intensive of my life, but I had a lot of help from Reddit and Japan-Guide. Our Itinerary was as follows:

Some of these plans changed when we got there of course, but this packed itinerary let us make the most of the 12 days we had in Japan.

Knowing what I know now, if I had the foresight I would have purchased an ANA Business Class Ticket for 85,000 points, after transferring Amex Membership Rewards points to ANA. The Amex Platinum (Benz) has a sign up bonus of 75,000, and there are various other Amex cards which offer 25k or 50k to make up the difference. The lie flat seats would be a huge plus, and SPG (Starwood) hotel points can be transferred over to ANA as well.

If you do go to Japan, I HIGHLY recommend hitting up an Onsen, as that kind of Hot Springs experience in the revered nature of Japan is a very unique experience. The traditional ‘Japanese things’ are fun, but my personal favorites were the serene temples with free roaming deer in Nara, biking through Arishiyama (temples + Monkey Park) and drinking sake in the park with hundreds of locals during Hanami (Cherry Blossom Watching).

ProTip: If you have access to a kitchen, Kobe Beef is ‘regular steak’ priced in Japan. They have mini supermarkets even in the densest part of the cities, and you can prepare an amazing meal with unique stuff you find at the grocery store or pick up at the Tsukiji Market.